Hi. I'm Catherine Leggitt. I'm a recovering complainer. Like many, I lived in denial for years. I didn't complain, I just stated facts. My husband doesn't talk to me enough. My legs are too short. My children don't call often enough. You get the picture. Those are just facts. Acknowledging them doesn't constitute a complaint.
Then I got into a Bible study of The Life of Moses. What an eye opener! Those Israelites were stating facts too. God had just led them out of Egypt by a series of miracles and then they saw the incredible way He delivered them from Pharoah's army at the Red Sea. What do they do in the very next chapter? Are they praising God for His great and mighty works? No. They are saying stuff like, "What are we supposed to drink out here in the wilderness? What do we have to eat? Remember how good we had it in Egypt? We sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. But now Moses has led us out into this desert to starve." Facts? Well, sure. You can look at it that way.
But what complaining really says is that we are ungrateful for God's provision. We're saying that God is not as good as He says he is; that He doesn't provide us with exactly what we need; that He doesn't know what is best for us.
When I began writing about Christine Sterling in PAYNE & MISERY I put a lot of my complaining into the manuscript. During the ten times I rewrote that book, I had to take most of my own personal complaining out. I left some of Christine's in because she has to learn about complaining too. She doesn't realize that she blames her lack of joy on others instead of choosing to be content.
We can always choose joy. No matter what the problem or challenge that comes our way. They say, pain is inevitable but misery is a choice. So true. Whatever the painful situation you endure, you have the choice about whether to choose misery or joy. Always. That's what this blog is about. How to choose joy. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject. Thanks for joining me. Together we can eradicate misery from our lives.
